How can a political party be so dumb as to [anger] Hispanics, women, and young people? Because the core of its base is middle-aged white men -- and it doesn't seem to know how to satisfy its base without at the same time turning off everyone who's not white, male, and middle-aged.
Showing posts with label Robert Reich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Reich. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
That's Mighty White Of Them
Economist and Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich surveys the GOP's efforts to reach beyond its base (which actually don't currently exist, though I'm sure there's a whole team working on it really hard) and concludes:
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Severity Of Our Disengagement
Defending himself against Bill O'Reilly's wacky accusation that he's a communist, Robert Reich says Fox News and their ilk are burying the nation in "doo-doo" -- an unintentional allusion to the late Seamus Romney, one assumes, since Reich adds:The 2012 election doesn't seem likely to clarify any issue. At this moment the candidates and their surrogates are debating the treatment of dogs.
Across the nation, conservatives right-wingers and liberal or progressive lefties have stopped debating their respective views, or even listening to anyone they disagree with. They just find broadcasters and bloggers who confirm their views.
We're even sorting by belief according to where we live. Today your neighbors are more likely to agree with your politics than disagree. We've settled into like-minded enclaves where we don't need to think because everyone we meet confirms what we assume we already know.
It's not that the nation is more polarized than it's been in the past. America has been through searing conflicts, some within the living memories of most of us. The communist witch-hunts of the 1950s were followed by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, battles over women's reproductive rights and gay marriage.
What makes America's current polarization remarkable isn't the severity of our disagreements but our utter lack of engagement debating them.
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